Flying a Dog

This is the story of a little dog named Todd.  I first heard of Todd several weeks ago when Marleen Oetzel at  Lost and Found Dogs told me his story..... West Virginia, caught in a steel trap and then left outside for a week until he was taken to Wetzel County Animal Shelter.  From there, Rozy Cozart, the director took him to her vet, Dr. Shockey.  Dr. Shockey kept Todd for several weeks, several surgeries, lots of suffering.  The staff loved Todd - he is such a brave little dog with a huge heart.  No matter what they did to him, he still loved.

When the big day came for Todd to be discharged, Marleen called and asked if I could fly him from West Virginia to her in Delaware so that he could go to his forever home.  So, on  March 8, 2011, I flew to Parkersburg airport, right on the Ohio River that separates West Virginia and Ohio - a gorgeous day to be in the air - clouds above me, snow-scattered ground below me that got whiter as I flew northwest. 

It took Todd a while to leave the Vet Hospital - none of the staff wanted him to go.....
lots of sweet goodbyes...







but finally they did let him go with Rozy.  I am certain they still miss him and will never forget him.

Todd is the kind of dog that you meet all the time and once in a lifetime.  He is a lucky dog because the idiot who caught him in the trap and then let him stay on his front porch for a week in a West Virginia January one of the coldest in recent memory must have had some kind of thought in his idiot brain.  Maybe he wanted to be a hero to his three children,  who knows?  In any event, he put Todd (with a gangrenous back leg and a front leg crushed to the bone) in a wire crate in the back of a pickup truck and took him to Rozy at the Animal Shelter.  Rozy took him into her arms and never looked back...... except that she plans to press criminal charges.  She has told me that the county prosecutor always fails to prosecute her charges but she keeps trying because it is her moral duty.  

Todd is going to be fine.
 

     
But the idiot who was so cruel to him is always going to be an idiot.  And, barring some miracle, his children are going to grow up thinking that idiocy and cruelty are the normal way of things... and so it goes and so it goes. 

But people like Rozy and Marleen and Dr. Shockey and his wonderful staff, and my friend Susanne Kogut our local SPCA and Rhonda Beach down in North Carolina, all those other angels who dedicate their lives to countering animal cruelty and abuse never give up.  I admire that so much, and am humbled by their service to animals and to humanity.  As you might have gathered from my polemics above, I am not as evolved as they are in my journey to true humanity. I keep trying, though.

Wish me luck.
 
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my last month will be a busy one!

take Millie flying again, play in the snow, give carrots to a horse, hear the rain on the roof, feel the sun on my face, walk with the dogs, fly the rescue dogs, notice the onset of Spring, laugh, cry, kiss, hold on, let go, clean my closets and drawers, hear Josh play his trumpet, talk, be silent, open the windows......

more of March

spend time with my brother, sit by the fireplace, lay in the grass, sit by the river, sharpen pencils, hold hands....

REVERB 11 - Last Month to LIve

I am going to copy my friend's blog prompt for today on how I would live March if I knew it was my last month to live......... She did a clever thing by using a collage effect which creates no particular order - my order below is not of importance but of my mind going in its usual random pathways...................

take a nap with my dogs, kiss my husband, tell my friends I love them, spend time with my friends, walk in the woods, run with abandon down a country path,  bake a cake, plant flowers, prune my shrubs, dig in the dirt, hug my dogs, hug my friends, hug Ben, fly the Columbia, sing old songs, drink lots of good coffee, enjoy a glass of wine with friends, visit my nephew at Ft Benning, play with puppies, sit with old dogs, watch the birds, listen to the birds, sit by a stream, climb Humpback Rocks, swim in the river, inhale the scent of daffodils - fill vases with them all over the house, take care of my orchids, make my favorite soup, go to Nellysford, laugh out loud, yoga, yoga, yoga, sit on the sofa with millie at my side, sit on the floor with Emma and rub her soft face, lie down with Lucy on her big dog bed, touch Walter's ears, climb a tree, rappel down a cliff, watch the birds, feed the birds, listen to birdsong, sit on my back porch and read, have a dry Martini, watch the ACC tournament with my husband, have a spaghetti dinner by candlelight, sleep on clean sheets every night, give of myself, be kind to strangers, be kind to everyone, smile, have a chocolate milkshake, 

Flying the Dogs

InkindnessToAnimals

Peace

Flying the Dogs

This month, I have been lucky enough to combine activities that involve two of my loves in life - a dog and an airplane.  The airplane belongs to a company my husband and I formed and named after our old dog Joppa (RIP).  

Until, her February flight to better times up north, the dog belonged to no one.

The Diamond Dog was a pregnant female of indeterminate origin, though she most certainly had some hound ancestors. She was left overnight at the Person County Pound in NC, tied to the railing out front.  The Person County Pound is one of the 17 county pounds in NC that still uses gas to euthanize unwanted animals - 72 hours on death row and then into a room with several other animals into which poison gas is pumped -- at least 20 torturous minutes pass until death comes.

Rhonda Beach, an angel, has dedicated her life to trying to get as many dogs as she can out of the Pound and into foster or forever homes.



Often, this involves making those southern mutts into Yankee mutts -- moving them by hook and crook  to shelters in PA or NY, or in Diamond's case, Delaware.  That is where I am able to do a little bit to help - by putting one or more of them into crates in the back of Joppa's airplane and whisking them away to better places and times.





When I met Diamond she was very noticeably in the family way.  Rhonda had managed to hook up with Marleen Oetzel in Delaware, another angel, who was able to find yet another angel who agreed to take Diamond in and keep her until the puppies are whelped and weaned.   The pups are due any day now!  When they are old enough, Marleen will make sure they and their mother each will have wonderful homes.

I so admire people like Rhonda and Marleen because for each animal they are able to save, there is at least one more that they have to leave behind.  Oh, if I only had that kind of heart inside me - 


Wish me luck.

Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely it will mean the world to that one dog. unknown author.

Back at Work

The other day, the young dogs and I went for a walk in the woods and hills over near Crozet.  The trees stood patiently in the cold undistracted by leaf and fern or flying insect or  chirping bird (Willa Cather).  The dogs ran happily through the leaves and up the hills chasing each other and one lone deer that they stood no chance (though much hope) of catching. 

I love Winter - the solitude, the quiet, the stark shapes - it suits me to walk around in hat and gloves.  My love for Winter is not exclusive and in no way diminishes my love for the other seasons - it is akin to having several friends whom you love the same but for entirely different reasons. 

Namaste